The Price
by ScottyBgood
Summary: Sins of our ancestors still haunt the world, scarring the land for generations to come. Tori thought she, Andre and Beck were just exploring a haunted house, up until they accidentally ran into someone they knew, and secrets of their shared past came pouring out. But when the fate of dozens who've come before rest upon a single act, who will wind up paying the price? One shot.


Disclaimer: Victorious and it's characters belong to Schneiders bakery, and Nickelodeon. No money is made from their use, and frankly, they weren't doing much anyways.

:}

Tori wasn't sure about this, sneaking into a supposedly haunted house. But she wasn't going to back down either. Not when she'd been dared to by no less then her best friend, Andre. "Whats wrong, Chika, afraid?" He mocked her again. "Come on, Tori, it's just a house. There's nothing here to be scared of. If there was, Jade would live here."

"It's not that." Tori tried to protest. "It's just…."

"They say this place is the most haunted house in the city." Beck added. "But no one cares, since it was never haunted by any celebrities. I swear, a zombie army could rise, and no one would care if none of the zombies were celebrities."

The three of them crept into the house, not wanting to disturb the security guard who was strangely absent from the building proper. "Anyone know the story of how this house got so haunted?" Tori asked.

"Dates back to the early eighteen hundreds." Andre said. "From what I've heard, there was a religious cult here, extremists, who were slaughtered by the local tribesmen in retaliation for the cruelty used to build up this area. Then later, there was a prison on this spot, and we're about where the gallows were. Lots of people were killed here over the years. Strange happenings, cults, you name it. I've even heard the land is cursed."

"Which is why Robbie and Cat opted out." Beck added. "Neither of them do scary well, so it's for the best."

"And Jade thought this place was lame?" Tori asked, hoping the goths absence meant that the land was safe.

"Actually, I never asked her." Beck admitted. "She was busy and we're not exactly speaking at the moment, so..."

"So you took me to one of the most haunted places in the city without checking to see if it was actually haunted?" Tori asked.

"We're ghost hunting." The actor told his friends. "You do that by sneaking into heavily haunted places at night, and seeing what you find. I'm just amazed that you believe in this chiz."

"Whats the matter?" Andre asked again. "Afraid you'll see a ghost, or that you won't."

Tori, meanwhile, had heard something faint echoing down the halls of the ancient mansion. "Did you hear that?" She asked. She pulled out her small flashlight, the one with the red filter to preserve their night vision. They all had them, in case they needed to see something clearly. It was better then the fourty five minutes it would otherwise take for their vision to adjust if they lost a flashlight.

"You mean the wind?" Beck asked back.

"No, it sounds like chanting." Tori said, following the guys as the pushed deeper.

Soon the rhythmic chanting could be more felt then heard. No one heard the words so much as felt the pressure on their skin as the walls seemed to vibrate from those chants. The vibration, which permeated the air, got stronger as they walked deeper into the house, heading towards the basement. Even Beck was on edge, seemingly worried that maybe, just maybe, the rumors were true, and this place was haunted.

"Guys, I think we should look in the guide book, see which room is supposed to be the best to make contact, and go there." The Canadian suggested. He put his reddened flashlight in between his teeth as he pulled the guide book out.

"Guide book?" Tori asked, the fear slowly fading. "You mane there's a guide book to this house?"

"There's a guide book to all the known haunted houses." Beck assured her, having retrieved his flashlight now that the book was out. "For wanna be ghost hunters like us."

"So..." Andre said. "What does the guide book say? Where are we likely to see some ghosts?"

"It says that, no matter where we go, there's a chance of seeing something. There's reports of all kinds of chiz." The normally calm boy said, obviously on edge. "Apparitions that wander almost wherever they want, strange sounds, and get this, a feeling like the walls are vibrating…. Says here that means the spirits of this place are worked up. Somethings possibly happening."

"I suggests we start as high as possible." Tori urged. "Maybe something nice and safe, in the attic?"

"The attic, where a cult held a girl for almost a month, torturing her in a series of bizarre rituals, before finally sacrificing her." Beck read out of the book. "Says the girls soul went somewhere, but something dark took her place in the attic."

"You're kidding, right?" Andre asked. "It doesn't say that, does it?"

"It talks about what people suspect happened in each room." Beck replied. "God, this house is less then sixty years old, and we have over a dozen murders. It's like there isn't a clean room. The hall seems to be the only safe place."

"Safe?" Tori took her turn to ask. "As in danger? Are we in danger being here?"

"Not sure." Beck told them. "Some people claim to have been attacked, but I doubt it's that bad, or we'd be hearing of bodies found in the morning… Oh?!" He abruptly closed the book.

"What?" Andre asked.

"What is it?" Tori echoed, overlapping with the musicians words.

"Did they find bodies?" The musician asked.

"They did.." Tori started.

"Oh, we're.." Andre talked over her.

"Find bodies?" Tori continued.

"Gonna die." Andre finished.

"Both of you, get a grip." Beck said. "The bodies they found might have just been druggies, using the place cause it was abandoned. Places like this get abandoned a lot, then you have gangs and the homeless who move in. druggies who use the place as a crack house. People die in that kind of situation. So…."

"So, how many people have dies here in the last sixty years?" Tori asked.

"No one has lived in the house in the last twenty, but they've updated it twice." The hansom boy said, looking in the book. "House and it's property are worth over ten million, yet no one is willing to buy it for any price. Every so often, you get someone who thinks they can make a profit off of the land, but things go wrong, and..." He looked around, closing the book once more. "Okay, lets dispel this myth, right now. They say the sacrifices the cult did were in the basement, so thats probably the most haunted part of the house. I say we go down there, prove that nothing is out of the ordinary."

"Or we could leave." Tori said.

"Nothing wrong with leaving while ahead." Andre added.

"Then you two go." Beck said with determination in his eye. "I'm going to the basement, alone if necessary."

"Well, good luck with that." The musician declared as he started towards the door. Tori reached out and snagged his arm. "But he said he would be all right."

"No he didn't." Tori reprimanded her friend. "Now we're going down with him, so if he does face a ghost, I know he won't have faced it alone."

The three of them made their way tot he stairs, slowly walking down to the basement. Once they were down, they could clearly see that the basement was divided into several rooms. "One of these doors leads to the laundry, another to what was once the entertainment room. Thats what they converted to be their summoning chamber." Beck explained.

"Thats one complete book." Tori noted. "Any idea what inside?"

"Why don't we go in and check. Andre, you check that door, while Tori checks this one, and I check that one over there." Beck recommended.

"Are you sure thats a good idea?" Tori asked. "I mean, separating like that?"

"We're not separating." Beck pointed out. "Most of these doors are like closets or the laundry room. We're unlikely to walk into a room and be separated from each other. Just, open your door, and lets see whats what. Tori..."

The Latina opened her door to reveal the laundry room.. A door beyond was open, showing a bathroom. "Looks clear to me." she said.

"Okay, my turn?" Andre asked, looking at his friends. He opened his door to reveal a large closet. Nothing was stored on the shelves that lined the walls, but a built in workbench was clearly visible against one wall. "Looks like I struck out too."

"Then it's my turn." Beck said, opening his door and walking through. The vibration that had been felt in the walls stopped the moment he opened the door.

"Beck!" Both Andre and Tori screamed as their friend blindly walked into that room. Rushing, they both raced into the darkened room, their small ghost hunter red beamed lights giving less illumination then they were used too. They were stumbling through he darkness, trying to move while only seeing a couple of feet in front of themselves.

"You brought Harris?" Jade's voice echoed in the unnatural darkness.

"Tori wouldn't have come without him." Beck responded.

"Jade, Beck?" Tori asked.

"It's just a Halloween trick." Andre moaned.

"And if you leave right now, let Beck take you out of here," Jade's voice focused on the boy, "then thats all it'll be."

"So we can leave?" Tori asked, gesturing to the door, faintly visible in the background.

"No, Vega, you stay." The temperature in the room seemed to drop a few degrees.

"Jade, please, this isn't funny." The Latina begged.

"No, it isn't." Jade replied. "But it turns out, your distantly related to the missionaries who first cursed this land. One of the survivors of that mission went on to be one of your ancestors. The spirits want, need your sacrifice to know rest. It's the only way to bring peace..." Her voice, usually so strong, faded at the end.

"Beck, you brought me here so she could kill me?" Tori asked, horrified.

"Not necessarily." He said. "I don't know for sure what the spirits want. Just that, my family is one of those cursed by the actions that have taken place in this house. That girl who was captured, held. She was my great aunt. I-I have to do something. We, I don't know what kind of hell she's been sentenced too."

"So you just sold me out?" The now very disappointed Latina asked.

"Harris, Andre, what are you doing still here?" Jade's voice took on a threatening tone.

"I wasn't enough." Beck confessed. "I stayed with her as long as I could, and I just wasn't enough."

"I'm not leaving until I know Tori's safe." Andre insisted.

"What's that got to do with anything?" Tori asked, caught between the growing fear and her growing anger.

"Aww, you even have that look on your face." Jade's voice shifted to mocking. "That 'I'm gonna be the hero' look never quite works out for you, does it?"

"When I found out what Jade could do, I offered myself." Beck confessed. "But I'm not connected enough. She needed a blood relative of one of the original participants. Tormentor, victim, it didn't matter. And as it turns out, you might have a bit of both."

"Thats..." Tori looked for something to say.

"She can see." Andre said, softly but with a growing fear. "TORI, JADE CAN SEE!"

"Like thats such a big deal?' Tori scoffed. "Beck here was gonna… She can see us? In this darkness?"

"Yes, I can see you." Jade admitted with a huff. "Yes, Beck offered me anything I wanted, including his own life, if I'd just free his great aunt. But it turned out they needed a bigger sacrifice, and you, Tori, are it. Andre, I really don't want you or Beck around for what happens next."

"You're gonna gut her with your scissors, aren't you?" The musician guessed. His accusatory tone upset the goth, but she could easily hide what she was feeling behind the darkness that swallowed most of the light only a foot out from it's source.

"Dre, I think we should go." Beck sounded so small, defeated. Like he'd sold his soul, and it still wasn't enough.

"With Tori." Andre added.

"No." Tori said. "Jade, you said you needed someone related to the original sin. That hints that this would be bigger then freeing Beck's aunt?"

"Good guess." The still unseen goth replied. "I need a sacrifice, from each of us, and maybe, just maybe, the guardian spirits I usually work with can pull those trapped free, let Beck's great aunt out, and give us some peace."

"And what kind of sacrifice would you be giving?" Dre asked.

"I don't know." Jade admitted. "I could wind up dying tonight, or spending the rest of my life in jail for what I do to Tori here. But if I don't close the rip here, then this house will continue to trap souls, until someone darker then me realizes that this could be a weapon as well. Besides, I promised. Beck, you were good to me. Better then I deserved. If I never see you again, know I did love you. But this requires more then our love. Blood is gonna spill."

"Dre, Beck, go. I don't think either of you are gonna help whats going to happen tonight." Tori said, her voice faltering as she tried to put on a brave face. 'Jade's willing to die, or give up the rest of her life, to do this. I can't be a coward now.'

"So no matter what, Tori dies?" Andre asked, pressing the issue.

"There's a chance." The unseen girl admitted. "They want the blood of the instigators. Someone deeply involved. But it's also possible that she'll walk out tomorrow, maybe a cut somewhere, and nothing else."

"See." Beck said, his voice full of false hope and madness. "They'll be fine."

"There's a chance you won't make it out, right?" Tori asked.

"Assuming I don't give my life to seal the rift, then someone is gonna have to guide them back to the other side." The dark haired girl admitted. "I figure I have a fifty fifty chance. Maybe more, maybe less."

"Jade!" Beck inhaled as he spoke, shock taking his voice.

"I promised." Jade pleaded with one word. "Tori, if you go, I'll still do this, but I'll pay both prices, and it may not work."

"If I stay?"

"It still may not work." The goth finished for her. "But your the best shot at getting this done."

"Tell me whats gonna happen?" Andre asked. His voice was next to the door, possibly already in the hall. "Why don't you know?"

"I..." Jade was looking for any way to explain. "I'm going to let something else have my body, for the night. It's supposed to know how to do this. I'm giving up myself for the night, and whatever happens, I'm taking the blame."

"This isn't like you." Tori said, now deeper in the room.

"I..." Jade was opening up. "Beck saved me from the darkness. If only for a while, the darkness that was consuming me, he saved me. He allowed me to be his girlfriend, loved me, when no one else could. I owe him."

Footsteps were heard echoing up the stairs. "Their gone." Jade announced. "Are you ready?"

"Just do it." Tori said. "I don't wanna see it coming. And please, as painless as possible."

Instead, the darkness faded, until the dozens of candles that were burning illuminated the basement with an eery, flickering light. Tori's eyes adjusted to the new brightness, allowing her to look around the pentacle Jade had drawn on the floor. Shadows and fuzzy forms danced and moved around the circle, showing the spirits that had come to the basement for this ritual. There were dozens.

Tori's eyes, however, soon found something more disturbing to focus on. Jade was wearing only some elaborate body paint. Her naked form was covered in patterns and symbols, glyphs of power and significances drawn onto her skin. "Like what you see?" The goth said with a smirk.

"I could have lived without seeing that." Tori said, not able to tear her eyes away from the naked girl.

"I'm gonna take just a small bit of your blood, just in case it's enough. Then, I'm summoning something. It's a… Kinda a fallen god. But it should be able to do what we need, save the ghosts from themselves. But when it does, as often happens in movies similar to this, the house might catch fire. If it does, and you can run, promise me you won't do anything stupid to try and save me."

"Fifty fifty?" The singer asked. "Doesn't sound like it. And what are my odds of making it out of here alive?"

"If I had to guess, I'd say there's a ninety nine present chance my life is over." The mystic goth admitted. ":But I'll do whatever I can to get you out of this."

"You've given up." Tori noted. "This is the last thing you think you'll ever do."

"There's a good chance I'll be in prison soon." Jade smiled as she started working. Taking a knife with a strange handle, she cut a shallow cut on Tori's hand. The blood flowed into a challis she had ready for that purpose. Then Jade wrapped a cloth around the wound. Tori took that moment to kiss the goths dyed black hair.

"No extensions." Tori blurted.

"I'm just me tonight." The goth said. "No piercings, no extensions, nothing that might displace the energies I'm gonna be channeling."

"Um, what happens if you die from the possession?" Tori asked, hoping it was a Joke.

"You run before the spirits break free." Jade said without even looking. Instead, she walked to the center of the circle, chanting. The same rhythmic chant Tori had felt earlier. For the next hour, the chanting was the only thing either of them did. Jade sat in the center of the circle, trying to focus herself to open, while Tori sat near, watching.

"Child?" A disembodied voice asked. "You've stayed, of your own free will. I think, maybe, this won't take your life, if instead you're willing to give one."

"How?" Tori asked, but the voice didn't seem to care if she waited.

Ten minutes went by, Jade sitting in the center of the room, not moving beyond the shallowest of breaths. Tori was sure things were going to explode any moment. The spirits and ghosts seemed to form and take more solid shapes, often brandishing weapons or trying to show her horrifying things. 'Jade would have loved this.' Others no longer had a human form, now resembling beasts or human beast hybrids. Many were human, but missing something, or bleeding from one or more places.

"Take the blood, your blood, and then bleed the host. Only a small wound, like your own." The voice wasn't human, but now it seemed to emanate from Jade's body. "Hurry, or the host will die, and I'll have no choice but to feed you to the assembled spirits for their revenge."

Hands shaking, Tori forced herself to stay calm as she took one of Jade's hands, and made as shallow a cut as she could. Fear of not drawing enough blood warred with the fear that she'd draw too much. "Jade, I hope this doesn't scar." She whispered as she placed the challis under the bleeding wound.

"Very good." The voice said. It sounded a little more like Jade, but a lot less. "Now, once you've mixed the blood, add some of the herbs she has. I'll direct you." Instead of more words, Tori felt her hands jerk, as if some other force was trying to take control. Soon some herbs and substances she hadn't noticed before were pulled from Jade's gears of war bag and mixed into the combined blood of the two girls.

"Next, you will allow me to paint another symbol on the witch." The voice told her. Moving with more precision, her hands slowly finger painted symbol onto Jade's body, finding a place where no other symbols or glyphs had existed. "Next comes your sacrifice." Jade's eyes opened, and she looked at Tori. "It's been so long since I lay with a pretty girl."

"Lay?' Tori asked. "I-I'm not a virgin."

"Not a requirement." The voice said. "But the mixing of your energies, spiked with my own, will draw these lost spirits out of this place and give them a final rest."

Tori started removing her cloths. 'Great, the fallen god is a pervert.' She mused as she removed and folded each article of clothing. "Okay, but please be gentile."

"Next, we prepare your body." Jade's hands went to the mixed blood and finger painted symbols on Tori. It was creepy, with the assembled spirits watching. Creepy, and strangely erotic. Tori found herself becoming more and more aroused. "Your not possessing her to make love to me, are you?"

Finished with the body painting, Jade lay back. "No, you will both carry some of my essence. But she's maintaining so many of the spells. What a witch she will become. I'll need some form of control, to allow her to function in both worlds now. She's going to learn so much, assuming she comes back. You will have to be my instrument. And her anchor."

Tori found herself crawling onto Jade. The spirit, or fallen god, seemed more of a passenger, sharing the experience, then in control. But Tori was able to figure out what to do, slowly making love to Jade's not all there body. Everything else faded into the background as she made love to Jade in the least satisfying sex she'd ever have. Too many other things were on her mind, or had to be monitored. The energy grew, but wasn't focused on the act of pleasure. Instead, she felt the walls of the house, so long a place of torment. Rapes had been performed in this very spot, a punishment for the tribes who'd received them with open arms. This time, the sex was consensual.

Tori found it hard to concentrate on the things she was doing to the goth. She was Jade's anchor, not knowing what that meant. But the boundaries between her and the world grew slowly fuzzy, morphing until everything felt like it depended on her getting off. Tori could feel it. She was the house, and the prison, and the mission, all of which held their own sins and secrets. She was the cultists who'd come here to practices a black form of Catholicism, involving pain and sacrifice to appeases a vengeful god. She was the tribesmen who'd accepted this new group as a political move, only to be enslaved and tortured. She was the prisoners who raped one another as an escape from the very real pain and danger of their lived in that prison. She was the guards, who didn't care, or the hangman, strangely the most merciful man in the prison. Tori found herself the cultists who wanted to summoning a demon, but weren't sure how. They tortured several girls, including Beck's great aunt, until they figured out how to call the beast, only to realize they hadn't figured out how to control it.

The whole thing was exhausting. Trying to be all those things at once, and still be Tori, making love to her frenamy. And she was one more thing. She was strong, but damaged Jade. Jade, who'd been subjected to her own torments growing up. Tori could see that these people, the ones who hurt Jade so much, knew what she could be, and were afraid. Not the fear of god that motivated the serial killer who operated out of the house in eighties, but a fear of a child who could well be a potent mystic. Even Jade's father was afraid of the girl. Tori saw how dark Jade's life had become before Beck came along. Beck, the only one who valued her at all. Losing him felt like going back to those bleak days when she wasn't worth caring about.

And then, just as she was starting to feel so much for the dark girl, it all came to a swirling, explosive end. In one moment, she climaxed. Tori, Jade, the spirits, the house, even the land itself seemed to all let go in waves of release. Waves that shattered every barrier, breaking the walls between this world and the next, and in a tide of release pulled everything but Tori and the walls into that next realm.

Tori hovered, not quite awake, but not daring to fall unconscious until the girl under her got back, Struggling with all her might, it was only the faintest awareness of Jade stirring, coming back, that let her let go.

Tori felt it all coming back to her as she slowly opened her eyes. They were in the basement, a dark room with no windows to let in any light. She could fee the cold cement floor under them, as well as the warm body of the girl she'd slept with. Moving, pulling herself into a sitting position, Tori could feel the died blood in the paint on her skin. 'At least is doesn't small bad.' She comforted herself. Her body didn't want to move.

Slowly she pulled Jade up, finding a blanket under her. 'Must have been sitting on that when she was casting her spells.' Tori mused. Then she left Jade to go clean up.

The bathroom worked, with running water and everything. But it was a half bath. Tori was forced to give herself a sponge bath in the sink. Once she'd gotten the blood off of her, she dressed in yesterdays cloths, then checked to see if there was any battery left in her phone. A couple of texts later, she was on her way back for the goth.

Looking at the sleeping form on the floor, Tori felt the immense wash of emotions she'd felt the night before. "Okay, Jade, apparently I had to be the focus of part of the spell, and as a result, my feelings for you expanded. I now thoroughly love the living chiz out of you. I-I don't know if you feel it too, but I think we've got a problem." She checked to see why the goth hadn't woken up, and realized something had to be done.

Tori managed to drag Jade using the blanket. Once in the bathroom, she washed the girl, getting everything off of her. After that, the blanket became a towel, drying Jade off while somehow not spreading dirt all over her. Cloths found near Jade's bag were next. Tori worked in the dark, lit only by one small window in the bathroom, until she tried the light switch and found the electricity worked.

"Hello?" Beck called down. "Tori,. I'm here. You'd better be Tori, and not Jade asking me to help bury the body."

"Beck, get down here." The Latina called up. "I need you to carry her." She felt relief. She had been growing more and more worried that Jade might slip away if she didn't get some help soon.

He walked down into the cellar, watching as he went. "Is she?" He asked.

"She'll live." Tori said. "But she was sleeping on the floor proper, and thats a cement slab. I think she's suffering from hypothermia. I tried to warm her with..." She glanced at the sink.

Beck hoisted his ex up, carrying her up the stairs and out to where his car was parked. The security guard didn't seem to care that the front gate was open, instead focusing on his breakfast. "Food feels like a great idea." He suggested.

"Lets get Jade to a hospital first." Tori's voice trembled with worry and affection.

/

They quickly got the pale girl into the back of the car, and Tori rode with her, holding the cold skin of the witch against her body, both seat-belted in tightly. Beck drove quickly to the nearest hospital, hoping they weren't gonna lose his ex.

They entered Walking emergency, asking for someone to help them. "Help, my friend slept on a concrete slab last night, in the basement of a supposedly haunted house, and I think she's got hypothermia." Tori called out.

Nurses came over to check the girl out, quickly agreeing with the potential diagnosis. They had Jade placed on a gurney and taken in to be warmed up. "Her body temperature is dangerously low, but not to the point where we need to take drastic steps." The nurse explained. "I'll see what the doctor recommends, but we'll be warming her up. Once thats done, we'll check for possible limb damage, since thats the main danger she's in now. That, and shock."

The doctors checked her out, while tori and beck checked her in. "Okay, Miss Vega, we'll be contacting her parents from here. You're all under eighteen, so can't sign medical forms. However, it was a good thing you got her here when you did. She could have died."

"Is she gonna be all right?" Beck asked.

"The doctors with her now, but we didn't see any damage to the extremities." The nurse explained. "I think she's gonna be okay."

After fishing checking her in, they spoke with the attending, found out Jade would be fine, but was being carefully warmed up, and would probably be up and active by the end of the day. "We'll call you if there's a change, but she should be fine. I'm having her watched for the next twenty four hours, just in case..."

"Can we see her?" Tori asked.

"Not right now." The doctor replied. "She's pretty out of it. Why don't you go get something to eat, and check in after about an hour. She should be coherent enough by then to understand you."

The two rode out in beck's car, relaxing about Jade. "Um, about last night….?" The Canadian started.

"What about last night?" Tori asked. She could see the guilt in his eyes, every time he glanced back at her.

"Well, um, your both still here, so you lived." He said, gathering his courage. "I was just wondering, Tor, um...what was the sacrifice you ha…." Beck's voice faded, not sure he wanted to know.

"Jade and I gave of ourselves, and now I love her as much as I could love anyone." Tori tried to explain. "It's hard to explain, but us loving one another, giving of ourselves freely, to help those trapped there, it let her spirit guide whatever break the curse, let them go."

"So now you and Jade…?' He asked, his voice getting stronger.

"She hasn't weighed in yet, but I'm fairly sure she already agreed to live with whatever consequences might come." Tori replied. "Or Cum..." a wicked smile crossed her face, fresh and strong now that the worry about Jade, and the worries of last night, were past her. She broke out of the memories to give a straight answer. "But yeas, I think she's with me now." A moment of the old Tori surfaced,,worried how beck would react knowing he'd still lost Jade.

"Thank god." The actor said, pulling into an inside out burger. "You two as a couple, that price I can live with. But hay, breakfasts on me."

:}

So, that was a thing. Guess I'm still clearing out old stories, as I have time and motivation.

Thoughts?


End file.
